What Fashion's "Ethnic" Prints Are Really Called

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You've seen them crowding the racks at stores and draping the bodies of some of the most well-dressed ladies around… but, what do you actually call them? You know what you shouldn't call them: the hyper-general African print, the offensive "tribal" print, the catch-all "ethnic" print...not okay.

Lumping all similar prints into one group or referring to them by a descriptor rather than their real names is just as silly as calling jeans "blue pants," or a Le Smoking a "black suit." So, we're here to provide a little vocabulary lesson. From ubiquitous Dutch Wax prints to the traditional, striated Ganado print, we've got the real names and stories behind these historic prints. Read on and banish the term "ethnic print" from your lexicon, once and for all.